Pass notes No 3,018: MTV

What's MTV? It's a television channel. Or rather, it began as a TV channel and now it's a global TV network, with dozens of stations across the world and more than 10 channels in the UK alone.

Any I might have seen? Perhaps. Do you know MTV Music? MTV Base? MTV Dance?

Never heard of them. Really?

Nope. I prefer MTV Hits. Funnily enough, that's them too. In fact, stick more or less any noun after "MTV" and odds are it's a channel they control.

MTV Voles? OK, so not quite any noun, but the point is that the MTV empire is huge.

So what have they done? As well as helping launch the careers of many of the world's biggest bands and stars, they're also the station that brought us Beavis and Butt-Head, The Osbournes, The Hills and the original Jon Stewart Show. Which is, admittedly, a bag of mixed blessings.

I meant what have they done recently? Grown up. Well, turned 30 anyway. Today is exactly 30 years since the original MTV launched, on 1 August 1981, on a single small cable system available only to a few thousand residents of northern New Jersey. The initial broadcast began with footage of the launch of Apollo 11, the introductory words, "Ladies and gentlemen, rock and roll" and then, fittingly, the video for The Buggles's hit Video Killed the Radio Star. That song was, if you like, their manifesto.

And did they keep that manifesto's promises? Pretty much. The rise of the video certainly made life considerably harder for those acts who didn't want to pout, pose, sing to a camera or dance around dressed as a zombie.

So how come they spend so much time broadcasting shows such as Geordie Shore now? You may very well think that, but MTV pioneered reality shows with The Real World in 1992.